Q & A On Recycling Used Cabinets

Q.

Peggy,

Greetings! I purchased a gorgeous, custom-made kitchen from a home and missed the fact that the cabinets were glued at the fronts, between the different cabinet units, as well as screwed.

How can I get them apart at the fronts without ruining the cabinets?

Can I attach a straight-edge as a guide and run a fine carbide blade in my saw, along the glue seam and cut them apart? I am not worried about the 1/8 or so of an inch that I will lose to the blade-cut.

Should I try a vinegar or some other kind of solvent to try and lessen the grip of the glue? I have seen that, although it does not disolve the glue, it weakens it and the cabinets can be pulled apart.

Heat?

I wanted to re-purpose this fine kitchen, but have run into a snag. I am not sure if you are the right person to ask this question, but I am hoping that you will be able to direct me to someone who has been re-purposing others' kitchens. It is important to me to be as green as I can be.....I have run into a snag.........

Please advise.

Sheri

A.

Hi Sheri,

What a snafu!
You poor kid!
That's a beautiful set of cabinets and certainly worth saving if you can do it.

It's REALLY unusual to see cabinets glued together as you describe.
Normally installers just clamp and screw them together.

Are you certain that they are separate cabinets?
Custom cabinetmakers usually build face-frame type cabinets in "runs" to cut down on face frame material.
You can tell for sure by looking under the wall cabinets to see if they are individual cabinets (you've probably already done that, but just to be sure).

Assuming they are separate cabinets glued together; cutting them apart with a VERY fine blade is possibly workable. Fine blades tend to wander more than heavier ones, so you'll have to be very careful to set up a good jig to keep the saw blade cutting straight. The glue in the seam will also make the blade want to wander to the softer wood on either side.

If you don't get perfectly straight cuts, then the cabinets won't reassemble well, unless you are putting them back exactly the same as they are.

Looks like full-overlay hinges too. So you'd better check the door swing by opening two back to back doors to see how much room there is between them when open, and whether they need all of the room between them to operate freely.

If you can't cut them apart as we have proposed, with straight edges and enough room for the hinges to operate; just cut them apart and build new face frames and finish them and replace them. Face frames are pretty easy to build. Just a matter of matching the wood and stain and finish. They are mostly hidden behind the doors anyway. Or a kindly cabinetmaker could help.

You are probably dealing with a carpenter's wood glue, or "Elmer's". That stuff cures out like stone. I don't know of anything that will soften or remove it myself, especially when it's in a seam. A good paint store is where I would go to ask that question, but I think it's futile.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your cabinet recycling.

Peggy

More Kulambu / Indian Yogurt Gravy

I had the first taste of More kulambu from the hands of my Grandmother. However no one at my home likes this recipe, so we prepare this dish once in a while. But nowadays this has become a common dish as me and my hubby like it very much.

More kulambu is the simplest Indian gravy which can be even prepared without vegetables. Also you can use any one of the vegetables like Okra (ladies finger), Drumstick, Ash Gourd(Surakaai), Chow chow, White Pumpkin. I prepared this recipe with drumstick however the procedure remains the same for whatever vegetables you use.

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Chocolate Birthday Cake

I made this chocolate cake from scratch, covered with pure semi sweet chocolate thick glaze and decorated with strawberries and raspberry, which I think goes well with chocolate. I also made a chocolate heart shaped mold flat sheet on which I wrote the birthday message with white butter cream icing.

 This is the first time I made everything from scratch and I was happy seeing the results.

I also learnt a new technique of making chocolate mold. To my surprise it turned out better than I thought, but needs some more perfection. :-)

Recipe for Chocolate Cake

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Ingredients:

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1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/3 cup Cocoa        (I used 1/3 cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate and melted in the microwave for about 20 secs, stir it, again 20 secs in microwave, until the chocolate melted - I was running out of cocoa powder :-))

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1/3 cup Cooking Oil (can be substituted with un-sweetened Apple Sauce)

1 cup Water

Method:

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1. Preheat the oven  to 350F.

2. In a mixing bowl mix all the dry ingredients really well. 

3.  Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork. 

4. Put batter  in a baking pan of desired shape and bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the fork comes out clean.

Icing:

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4 Chocolate squares (I used same semi-sweet chocolates - 1/3 cup - just eyeball the amount of how much icing you need)

3 tbsp Milk

2 tbsp Oil

2 tbsp Icing Sugar

Method:

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1. Melt the chocolate in microwave first for about 20 secs, stir it with a rubber or wooden spatula, again microwave for another 20 secs stir again and repeat it until the chocolate melts.

2. Blend rest of the ingredients together with the melted chocolate.

3. Pour the icing over the cake and even it out with a spatula.

4. To get even layer, dip a clean spatula in hot water and even out the icing if you need to.